Phonics

Phonics is taught daily in Reception & Year 1. We teach early reading using the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme. ELS teaches children to read using a systematic synthetic phonics approach.

Children are taught to decode by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together to read fluently. They are also taught to encode by segmenting each sound to write words accurately.

Phonics teaching and learning does not stop at the end of Year 1. Beyond Year 1, children are encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics as they tackle more complex books and learn to spell more sophisticated words.

The reading schemes used at KS1 include:

Oxford Reading Tree; Big Cat Phonics, Project X and Rigby Star.

Reading at Key Stage 1

We follow the Daily Supported Reading programme in Year 1 and Guided reading in Year 2. In Year 1, alongside phonics lessons, children read in small adult led groups every day. We share two books per week and each child has an opportunity to read aloud and independently. At the end of each week, the children take part in engaging activities linked to the texts they read.

The impact of daily supported reading is that children are excited to share texts and read aloud. We hear each child read every day. Children have access to quality texts at a level appropriate to them and quickly advance through the levels. Every child is empowered to read a whole book which boosts self-esteem and reading stamina. Adults work closely with each child in their group to enable ongoing assessment to ensure progress.

In Year 2, alongside reading with an adult, children take part in a range of daily reading activities with the aim of becoming confident, independent readers.

Reading at Key Stage 2

We deliver Destination Reader sessions each day. Each session consists of whole class modelling by the class teacher, from which the children apply learned skills to partner and independent work.

Destination Reader allows children to access high quality texts which is key for the engagement and enjoyment of reading. Using language stems and reading strategies, children are encouraged to practice high quality talk, developing language fluency further.

Encouraging Reading and Reading for Enjoyment

All children are encouraged to read daily and take books home to read. Children who read regularly are awarded reading tokens which are put into a raffle. Each week, the raffle is drawn and the winners from each class are awarded a new book of their choice to keep! 

High quality texts are a part of our curriculum. During focus weeks, we might explore one text in different ways throughout the whole school.

We take part in the Islington Reading Road Map which is aimed at nurturing reading for pleasure and helping to improve literacy.

For each year group, children choose from a number of books and genres and can take these home to read. For example, the Year 5&6 map has 60 titles and 11 genres (Adventure, Classics, Crime, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Horror, Humour, Poetry, Sci-Fi and Sport).

All the titles on the maps have been published in the last 12 months (except the classics genre). When children have read a quantity of books: 5, 10, 15 and 20, they are awarded a certificate from bronze to platinum in our achievement assembly which that are very proud to receive! 

We celebrate World Book Day each year, dress up and decorate our classroom doors! Some examples of our doors: